The rainfall-no rainfall transition in a coupled land-convective atmosphere system
Abstract
A one-dimensional representation of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) depth is
coupled to a soil moisture bucket model to dynamically explore the relative roles
of surface and free atmospheric conditions on convective precipitation occurrence
and resulting soil moisture states. This occurrence is taken to depend on the crossing
of the ABL height and the lifting condensation level in the presence of pure convective
instability. If rainfall occurs (unrealistically) whenever these conditions are met,
and free atmospheric conditions are constant, the resulting system state evolves towards
a limit cycle with precipitation every day or every few days, or to a completely dry
state. The free atmospheric humidity profile has a larger effect on determining the
stationary soil moisture state than the temperature profile. The effect of dry air
entrainment on surface energy partitioning decreases soil moisture sensitivity to
free atmospheric conditions. © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4127Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1029/2010GL043967Publication Info
(2010). The rainfall-no rainfall transition in a coupled land-convective atmosphere system.
Geophysical Research Letters, 37(14). pp. L14401. 10.1029/2010GL043967. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4127.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Gabriel G. Katul
Theodore S. Coile Distinguished Professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorology
Gabriel G. Katul received his B.E. degree in 1988 at the American University of Beirut
(Beirut, Lebanon), his M.S. degree in 1990 at Oregon State University (Corvallis,
OR) and his Ph.D degree in 1993 at the University of California in Davis (Davis, CA).
He currently holds the Theodore S. Coile Professor of Hydrology and Micrometeorology
at the Nicholas School of the Environment and at the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Duke University (Du
Amilcare Porporato
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Amilcare Porporato earned a Master Degree in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude) in
1992 and his Ph.D. in 1996 from Polytechnic of Turin. He was appointed Assistant Professor
in the Department of Hydraulics of the Polytechnic of Turin, and he moved to Duke
University in 2003, where he is now Full Professor in the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering with a secondary appointment with the Nicholas School of
the Environment.
In June 1996, Porporato received the Arturo Parisatti
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